My Yoga Mat Bag

So my 25th birthday was on Thursday, and as I mentioned a couple posts ago, my fiancée sent me a yoga mat (for you know, whenever I plan to get off my lazy bum and actually do yoga). I finished the bag the day after I got the mat, and I'm so excited at how perfectly it came out. I'm still really new to sewing, so being able to finish something like this is great. The tutorial I followed at boredandcrafty.com was so straightforward and well written that it made making it so easy. The only problem I had was trying to figure out how big to measure out my fabric, because my mat is a oversized, thicker mat, and I wanted a little more wiggle room for it. I ended up measuring my mat, adding 3 inches to the length and circumference (and thanks for a online diameter calculator), then proceeding with the tutorial. So, in the end, it came out really great, and the fabric, I think really makes the bag stand out.

I also made the strap a few inches longer, because I worried how tight it was going to be on me, I didn't want to feel choked by the strap being too tight. The additional 3 inches ended up to be the perfect size to go around my chest. Yes, I love this bag.

I added another step to finish the bag: I tacked down the lining to the outside part by a little bit of hand sewing, I didn't want my lining to pop out from the bottom whenever I pull out the mat. If I ever take classes, that would be quite embarrassing for me. So, a couple stitches, and done. Easy peasy.

Making Shea Body Butter

I got it in my head that I wanted to try some shea body butter. I heard it was really moisturizing and  beneficial to the skin, so I wanted to try it out, but the cost of body butter is so expensive! For a little tiny tin of it! So, I hunted down on the internet for some tutorial on how to make my own. It's really amazing how many different ways there are to make them, I was really surprised. I looked at what seems like hundreds of different ways, with even more different types of oils. I settled on one that I seen on YouTube. It seemed easy, foolproof, and pretty simple to follow.

Anyway, I didn't include all the ingredients that the above tutorial listed. Instead, I kind of made up my own. My ingredients included: A half pound of raw unrefined shea butter, almond oil, lavender oil (for scent, because I do not like the smell of shea butter), and some olive oil. The dropper is there because my lavender oil just had a pour top, and I wanted to control how much went into my mixture.

I put all of my shea butter in the bowl. I didn't measure any of the oils, but I probably put maybe 1 tablespoon of almond oil, maybe 3 tablespoon of olive oil and about 15 drops of lavender. Hey, it was my first time making it, I had no idea how much to put in. But, I just poured until things looked like it would mix up well.

I grabbed a mixer and just started whipping it all together. It was pretty easy with the shea butter being room temperature, it whipped up pretty well. About halfway through, I decided to add a couple more drops of lavender oil, because I still wasn't happy with the smell. I added it in, whipped it a little more, and I was done. It looked like cake frosting!

The hardest part was probably putting it all into the container. I originally started with container that stored chopped garlic (the bigger container), but it all wouldn't fit, so I fit the rest into a baby food jar.  It was messy going into the jars, and I'm not sure there is an easier way to get them in (without wasting any of it).

I've read that shea butter easily melts, which causes it to get hard and unusable at hotter temperatures. My house gets particularly hot in the summer, because we try to use minimal air conditioning - so I store mine in the refrigerator. Doesn't seem to harm it, I just take it out about 10 or 15 minutes before I plan on using it, and its usually pretty thawed out.

Also, it is pretty greasy on skin (all that oil, no doubt). But, I like to take it out of the fridge, go take a shower and put it on right before I go to bed. That way, I get my skin moisturized and the grease doesn't bother me. I've read somewhere if you add a little bit of cornstarch, it lessens the grease feel, but I wasn't sure if it would soak up the moisturizing properties. So, I didn't use it this time. Maybe in the future I'll try adding a bit of that.